Cruise G (the end)

Our Cruise May 4-18 2016




After Ketchikan, we entered the last day aboard. It is always just a little sad, as it means things are coming to an end. In some ways I'm eager to move on, but not in others. I've grown accustomed to the rhythms of my onboard life. Getting home, however, lets me regain access to other things I enjoy.

We hit Vancouver pretty early, and the ship does its very best to get everybody off as soon as possible. For them it means an easier turn around, but it also helps us get on our way home.

For Helen and I, there is a city walk pushing our bags, a bus ride to the ferry terminal, a ferry trip, a second bus ride, and a transfer to a third bus. If that all runs, we end up at a bus stop a mile from home. One of us then goes to get the car. That final mile is too steep for hauling our sofa-sized bags comfortably. This all gets followed by a marathon of unpacking and laundry.

A quick estimation says we can make it to the 11:20am ferry with ease. Even a major delay somewhere would have us on the next boat at 1:20pm. Assuming the earlier sailing, we can reach our local bus stop by 1:15pm (the later voyage would be two hours later), and unloaded at home by 1:30. Anything along those lines will see me on the mat at Jiu-Jitsu by evening. I've been missing that.

I am also interested to do an official weigh-in. My impression is that I am up in weight, but I don't really know, and have no clue by how much. Any gain being above 175 pounds will have me working to shrink back down. I don't think that will take long once we are home.

My goal for running was to crank out an average of 8km per day for each of the 15 days that the cruise touched, minus the days for loading, unloading, and the mid-point in Vancouver. That would have totaled 96km, but I've actually done a hair more, reaching 105.52km. At home, where I don't run on a hamster treadmill, it's easy to crank out more miles each day, to be more active in general, and to not eat like a piggy.

Our final time aboard is creeping up upon us. We have one more "Happy Hour", a final dinner, an evening, and then a morning of shuffling ashore. It is special in that Bernie is having his birthday. He would be mortified if we got the dining room staff to sing to him, or got a cake, or anything like that at all. Public display would be cruel, and I think he is in dread of us doing any such nonsense. We will not. All we have is a card, and silly hats for the privacy of our Happy Hour. Beyond that, we will let him choose dining room or buffet for supper. I suspect it will be the dining room, but really have no idea.

Everybody's big bags get packed, tagged, and put out in the hall in the evening, leaving us only Helen's personal bag, ukulele, and one small shoulder suitcase. We pick up the hefty ones again onshore just before customs clearance. It all goes remarkably smoothly considering that they have to politely shoo over 1,400 of us ashore, to be immediately replaced by 1,400 fresh faces. At the start of the voyage, we were the only ship doing a turnaround, but a week later the port had to handle our human cargo, plus that of two more vessels. The numbers involved are quite staggering.

We've been in port in Fort Lauderdale when there were five ships in port. We were in a ship holding twice as many passengers as our current little one, and we were only the second-largest cruise ship present. I would estimate the turn-around on that day to have easily been 20,000 people disembarking and another 20,000 loading aboard. An ordinary day for a port like that.

So I am sitting in the Lido buffet area at 5:30am as the ship passes by Gibsons and Bowen Island. I have already screwed up, having lost my keycard, and redeemed myself by getting it replaced before the crazy lineups start. I think the original is in my pants, which are in my big suitcase, which is in the bowels of the ship. Doesn't matter.

My smaller iPad is already hooked up to Telus cellular data, and thinks it's home already. It is, sort of. I have sent a message to somebody who wants to know if I'll be at open mat this coming Saturday, and checked the news for any changes in the transit labour dispute. It looks like there will be no issues getting home.

It all went perfectly nicely, and we were home in the early afternoon. I am rightfully fed up with the big, fat bags. If we take such monsters again, I'm parking the car at the cruise terminal in Vancouver, whatever the cost.

All done for another season.